Hi there! Some of you may have noticed mention of a special promotion that the publishers of The Faerie Path series are working on right now.

They have given me the following URL, so you might like to check it out:

http://bit.ly/bHNTQx

Also, there’s more stuff on: http://seaofpages.blogspot.com

The seaofpages blog suggests that the book being given as a prize will be a signed copy - but I’m not sure that’s correct - Harper Collins the publishers certainly haven’t asked me to sign any for them. Anyway - if any of you guys win the book, get in touch with me by sending a message from the Contact page, and I’ll arrange for you to send me the book for signing.

I have been working on the suggestions for The Charmed Return (Faerie Path book 6) that came to me from the American editors, and the manuscript is back with them again at the moment. I think the book is not due out till January 2011 - which must seem like entire lifetimes away! The thing is, publishers like to have a “finished” book in their hands 12 months before they publish - I’m not really sure why, but it is partly to do with advance publicicty and print-runs and stuff like that. Hopefully, in a few months, I should get a cover I can show you and then some sneak-peeks like I did with The Enchanted Quest.

I have the green light for starting to write Warrior Princess 4 now - so I’m going to be getting down to that from next week. It should take me till about mid-April, so if I’m slow at answering your mails or posting new blogs over the next eight or nine weeks, I apologize in advance.

As the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed, I have a couple of new “Coming soon” books on the Home Page - and I’ve added some new information about Warrior Princess Book 3 (The Emerald Flame) and also more about The Sundered Lands series.

My information at the moment is that The Emerald Flame will be out in October this year. I’m intending to post some sneak-peek stuff for this in the same way I did for book 2 - but it will be a few months before that starts happening.

Some of you will have noticed that Marisa’s Fan Site is down at the moment. I’m hoping this will be sorted out quickly, but for the time being there’s not really anything I can do about it. Sorry.

On the other hand, I have been speaking with a friend of mine - the one who helped me to set up this AllanFrewinJones site in the first place, with the plan of adding a “Picture Gallery” page here. I can post some photos and drawings and paintings of mine here, as well as letting you see alternate books covers for other countries. And I’m also thinking that maybe I could post pictures that you guys create - I think it would be fun to see how you imagine the characters and places in Faerie look. Does that seem like a good idea?

Also, I’m considering adding a “Fan-Fiction” page, which might work a little like the Fan Site - letting you chat among yourselves and post your stories online for other people to read.Thing is, that kind of site really needs a moderator - someone who will regularly check what’s being posted and weed out spam mails and anything else that shouldn’t have gotten in there. I’m not sure I’ll have time to do that, but I’ll have a think about it and let you know what’s what in a little while.

A lot of you guys are asking about the possibility of a Faerie Path book 7.

Here’s the thing: originally I was asked to write three books. These books sold well enough for the publisher to come back to me and ask for three more. So, in answer to fans who are clamouring for book 7, 8, 9 etc - it’s really out of my hands right now. If the word is spreading about The Faerie Path series, and plenty of people are buying the books, then there’s a good chance that the publishers will want more. I know that some of you are already out there spreading the word - and the more you do this, the more likely it is that there will be a 7th and an 8th book.

Amy Havre posted a comment a few days ago, asking for good ideas about how to spread the word. So - why not let us all know your thoughts on this. If you’ve already started telling people, tell us what you’ve done, and also post some ideas about what you think might work. You know the kind of thing: airships flying over New York with BUY THE FAERIE PATH BOOKS! written on the side. That kind of thing! Over to you!

I received a couple of copies of the book last week, and for the first time, I was able to sit down and read it through without needing to - or being able to - change anything.

One of the things that drives an author a little bit crazy on the first read-through of a newly published book, is when they spot things that could have been better - and it’s too late to change them!!!

These are usually only small things - descriptions that I think I could have written better - dialogue that could have been tweaked a bit to improve it, etc - but after a whole year of tweaking and polishing, it’s too late now. It’s now up to you guys to let me know whether you like the book - whether I’ve done a good job with it or not.

I hope you’ll get back to me about The Enchanted Quest - but can I ask one favour, please? If you want to say something specific about the plot -could you write to me via the contact page? I’d really like to avoid posting any plot spoilers online right now - at least for a few months.

On other subjects, I’ve just heard back from the American publishers about my storylines for Warrior Princess book 4 - and the good news for me is that they like the way the book is going! They had a few thoughts and suggestions, but on the whole, I’ve been given the green light to get writing. So, that’s my work sorted for the next two and a half months - writing Warrior Princess 4. It doesn’t have a title yet, but I’m sure one will pop up at some point!

I’m posting this to let you know about something that Arya told me about. Warrior Princess has been nominated for the Teenreads Children’s Choice Book Awards for 2009. The link is: www.teenreads.com:80/features/ccba_nominees_2010.asp. So if any of you guys would like to nominate Warrior Princess, that would be really great! Nominations need to be made by February 1st.

I’m also really pleased by the amount of mail I’m now getting about Warrior Princess from you guys! Thanks so much for all the kind words - I’m really thrilled that so many of you are enjoying the series. I’ve even had some people telling me they like it better than Faerie Path.

Anyway, I digress. We went to visit our friends in Crystal Palace, and drank some champagne at midnight, then we went out into the garden and we set off Chinese balloons. Do you know what they are? Just in case not, they are huge paper balloons, about three and a half foot high and a couple of feet across. They have a hoop of wire at the bottom that has a flammable square attached. You light the square and the paper balloon fills with hot air. Then, when it is fully inflated, you let it go and it soars up into the sky. We had them in yellow and green and blue. Mine had a kind of rocky start, and it almost turned over and I had to chase it across the grass to get it to fly right. But then it whooshed up into the air and flew way over the trees and the rooftops until it was like a star hanging in the sky. And right at that moment it started snowing, so that was pretty magical. The idea is to make a wish as you set your balloon off…but I can’t tell you my wish because that would spoil it. What might you have wished if you were me? Another ten Faerie Path books, perhaps?

Well, speaking of The Faerie Path, I took a look on the Amazon.com site a couple of days ago, and it seems that Faerie Path 5: The Enchanted Quest, will be in the stores on the 26th January! Hooray - at last!

I got a comment from Liz a few days back, really annoyed that Tania turned Edric’s marriage proposal down in The Immortal Realm, and asking why she would do such a thing. This set me to wondering what the rest of you guys think about this.

The thing is, it just seemed really obvious to me that Tania would say no - not just because she’s only sixteen, but also because it hit her as a real shock and kind of took her legs out from under her. Much as she loved Edric at that moment, she had never given any thought to marriage - to him or anyone else. Is she weird to react like she did, do you think? I’ve spoken to some famale pals about the same thing, and none of them think they would have agreed to get married at 16, no matter how much they loved the boy who asked - they all said they had way too many other things they wanted to do first, before settling down like that.

So, it’s over to you - was Tania out of her mind to turn him down like that, or do you think she was sensible to want to wait? After all, she really wanted to be with him, but just not married to him right then. (Oh, and when she turned him down, bear in mind she didn’t know about the whole “love is forever” thing.)

I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have posted and commented and written to me on this site - and all of those who have joined the fan club. It makes a huge difference to me to be able to interact with people who are reading my books and enjoying  them.

If things go according to plan, the next Faerie Path book will be in the stores on 1st February 2010 - that’s only a few weeks away now!

I have some other news about which I am rather excited. Those of you browsing my site will have spotted a new series I’ve been working on with the illustrator Gary Chalk - Sundered Lands. Well, the good news is that the series is going to be published in America as well as in the UK. Interestingly enough, the series has been picked up by a publisher who has links to the publisher of Faerie Path and Warrior Princess. But as this new series is a fantasy adventure for younger readers (8-12 years old), the publishers don’t want it to come out under the Frewin Jones name as they think people might be confused. So, I’m to be called Allan Jones on the covers of the new series. Oh, and it probably won’t be called Sundered Lands in the USA. The publishers have asked whether they can give the series a different title, and I’ve said that’s okay with me (and with Gary, of course - co-creator!).

Although Faerie Path readers might be a bit old for these books, they will be really good for younger brothers and sisters and for young cousins and possibly even nephews and nieces. I’ll let you have more details as soon as I get them.

Meanwhile, I’m working on new ideas with Gary, which is a lot of fun. I also have the American edits of Faerie Path 6: The Charmed Return to work on in the new year.

Here’s the opening comment from the American editor:

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe book #6 of Faerie Path is here! Bravo to Allan for wrapping this final adventure up in so much fantastic drama, magic, intrigue, and suspense.

But then the editor goes on to say that there are some things she’d like me to look at again for various reasons - so I’m going to be busy with this for a few weeks in January.

Then what? Well, the American editors still have the storyline of Warrior Princess Book 4to look at - I haven’t heard back from them about that yet, but once I do and everyone’s happy, I’ll start writing that.

And some time in Jan or Feb, Gary and I will be having a meeting with a website designer to put together a website for Sundered Lands.

Well, I think that’s all that’s new for now. Once again, I’d like to wish all of you a great Holiday Season and a really exciting and happy new year!

Here in the the south east of the UK we had our first snow of the winter yesterday - up to four or six inches around London, but there was only a thin coating where I live.  I’m a big fan of snow - but then I get to work from home, so I don’t need to go out in it, except to go down to the bottom of the garden with a kettle to un-freeze the water in the bird baths and keep the wildbird food topped up.

My wife Claudia has to go out in the bad weather, poor thing! But it’s only a fifteen minute drive for her to work, so it’s not so very bad - and today she brought home our Christmas tree. I’ve just set it up by my desk, and I’m going to let it settle for a while before we start to decorate it. Because Claudia is German, we tend to decorate German-style - which means all white and silver with just a touch of red here and there. The lights are white and the hanging balls and bells and stars are silvery, plus we drape lameter over the tree.  We inherited the hanging balls from Claudia’s parents - they are very delicate and made of very thin glassy stuff - so we have to be careful with them. Fortunately, Siouxsie the cat doesn’t find them interesting, or there would definitely be trouble.

Anyway, my chief purpose in writing this post is to let you know the results of that story writing competition that Marisa set up on the fan site a few months back. I have now had the chance to read through all the entires.

I’ll tell you guys one thing - every one who entered could make a living from writing if they wanted, I’m totally sure of that. I enjoyed every single one, and it was really hard to come up with a winner.

I was especially excited to read the ones that dealt with other aspects of the world of Faerie - like “Before Anita”, where Liz explained really well what it must have been like for Princess Tania when she first stepped into the Mortal World and got sick. And “Her Little Doll” by Laurelei was a great idea - seeing the attack of the Sorcerer King from the perspective of someone else in Faerie. I really liked that one a lot. And Kayla’s story of how childhood wings faded with first love was great - it’s such fun for me to see you guys taking part of the world of Faerie and adding stuff to it.

Christina’s Moon Spirit worked really really well, I thought - the idea of a love found but almost immediately lost was very intense. Oh, and I adored Reese’s idea of the elf who could make a carnation out of snow. That is a very Faerie idea indeed! I want to make a special mention of Kayla’s The Pigs On The Furniture story. I thought that was fantastic - totally weird but funny and engaging and a lot of fun. Come up with more stuff like that, Kayla, and you’re set for life!

But in the end - and it took a while, I can tell you - the story that really worked best for me was the one by Arya - the story of Ikos the Selkie. I know there are lots of stories out there of people saved by merfolk and suchlike, but somehow this story just rang really true to me - and also left a lot of questions unanswered, which is what a good short story ought to do, in my opinion. How had Elizabeth’s parents drowned? What kind of world is this story set in? Will Elizabeth survive her leap of faith? What is the underwater kingdom like? Do selkies always hear the thoughts of people about to drown, or was there a special bond between Ikos and Elizabeth? I really like thinking through questions like that after I’ve read a story. It leaves me wanting to know more.

So, well done Arya - all you now need to do is to go the the Contact Page and send me a message with your full address on it, and with the name you’d like the book dedicated to when I sign it. Then you’ll need to be patient with me for about 6 weeks, I think. I’m expecting to receive my copies of The Enchanted Realm a week or so before publication - 1st Feb next year - and I’ll sign and send your copy off as soon as I get it.

I do have more news - but I think I’ll save that for later…it’s nothing mind-blowing - just some updates on what’s going on work-wise for me. So, for now, congratulations to Arya - and I guess its maybe time for me and Marisa to come up with another competition. Anyone out there got any ideas?

I suppose the best thing about this new post is that it marks the point where I can tell you: Only Two Months To Go! The Enchanted Quest is due to hit the bookstores on 1st February 2010.

So, what else can I tell you about this new book without giving the game away entirely? Well…I think that by the end of the book the question of Tania/Connor or Tania/Edric will probably have been answered one way or the other. Also answered will be the question as to whether Tania will ever be able to get back to the Mortal World again. The Dream Weaver will make her presence known again. In the course of the journey, Tania, Rathina and Connor will encounter some dangerous enemies and some unexpected friendships, as well as being confronted by people they already know but whose allegiances are uncertain.

I think that’s about it for now.

Other news. The Charmed Return has now been through its UK edit and has been sent to the Publishers in New York for their verdict. I don’t imagine I’ll be hearing back from them before the end of the Year - but I’ll keep you in the loop regarding progress on the final book of this second Faerie Path trilogy.

Warrior Princess. I’m getting some very positive feedback about the new Warrior Princess book: Destiny’s Path. It’s great to know people are enjoying this new series as much as The Faerie Path.

Book four of the Warrior Princess series has been plotted out, thanks to a couple of long sessions with my friend and collaborator James. This week, the full storyline will be sent off to the New York publishers for their opinion. Hopefully, they’ll like it as much as I do. I plan on starting writing it early in the new year.

I have also been sent early copies of the UK editions of the first two Warrior Princess books. The covers are similar to the American ones, but with a different typeface - and on the cover my name is Allan Frewin Jones - not Frewin Jones as it is in America. Also, the first book is called Warrior Princess: Rhiannon of the Spring. This is the original title of the book. The American Publishers weren’t keen on it, so they dropped the “Rhiannon” stuff - but the UK publishers think it’s great.

These UK editions are not officially due out in England till October 2010, but they will be available in Australia before that date.

Other stuff? Well, I’ve been invited to a Christmas Party at the UK Publishers on December 2nd - Gary Chalk, the guy I’m writing Sundered Lands with is coming over from France (tomorrow!) and staying with me for a few days, so we can both go to the party. We’re planning on hinting to the important people at the party about a few new ideas we’re working on together. A new series or two, hopefully.

Well, that’s about it for now - hope you like the new chapter - and I hope it will keep you going till the book comes out on the 1st February 2010.